Liquid container

ABSTRACT

A liquid container includes a container barrel having a liquid inlet, and a pressure reducing device mounted to the container barrel and corresponding in location to the liquid inlet. The pressure reducing device may be a vortex generator for depressurizing the pressure of the liquid entering the container barrel so as to reduce the noise generated by the impact of the liquid on the container barrel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a liquid container and more particularly, to a liquid container that can extend the lifespan of a filter core contained therein.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional liquid container, such as water filter, mainly comprises a container barrel and a filter core installed inside the container barrel. Usually, the container barrel is provided with a liquid inlet aiming the filter core for introducing non-filtered water into the container barrel, and a wastewater discharging hole located at a lateral side of the container barrel for discharging wastewater generated by washing the container barrel. Because the liquid inlet of the conventional liquid container is designed to be aimed at the filter core, the non-filtered liquid introducing into the container barrel will have a high pressure directly exerting on the filter core to cause a damage of the filter core or to wash the impurities attached on the filter core away from the filter core to lower the quality of the filtered liquid. In addition, the conventional liquid container has a drawback that the wastewater accumulated at the bottom portion of the container barrel can not be totally discharged out of the container barrel through the wastewater discharging hole that is located at the lateral side of the container barrel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-noted circumstances. It is therefore one objective of the present invention to provide a liquid container that can extend the lifespan of the filter core contained therein and enhance the quality of the filtered water.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a liquid container that can completely discharge out the wastewater contained therein.

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, a liquid container provided by the present invention comprises a container barrel and a pressure reducing device. The container barrel includes a liquid inlet and the pressure reducing device is mounted to the container barrel and corresponds to the liquid inlet. Since the pressure reducing device can depressurize the pressure of the liquid entering the container barrel from the liquid inlet, the noise generated by the impact of the liquid on the container barrel can be reduced.

In the liquid container of the present invention, the pressure reducing device may be a vortex generator to reduce the pressure of the liquid entering the container barrel.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the liquid container further comprises a filter core, which is disposed inside the container barrel and corresponds to the liquid inlet, such that the liquid container of the present invention can have a filtering function.

In addition, since the pressure of the liquid entering the container barrel can be effectively reduced, a damage of the filter core can be prevented and the impurities attached on the filter core can hardly be washed out from the filter core, such that the lifespan of the filter core can be extended and the quality of the filtered liquid can be enhanced.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the liquid container further comprises a wastewater discharging member disposed at a bottom portion of the container barrel for facilitating discharge of the wastewater generated by water washing over the container barrel.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid container according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the liquid container according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and

FIG. 3 is an exploded sectional view of a filtering unit provided by the liquid container according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As shown in FIGS. 1-2, a liquid container 10 provided according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is mainly composed of a container barrel 20, a cap 30, a pressure reducing device 40, a filtering unit 50, a mounting rod 60, a support member 70 and a wastewater discharging member 80.

The container barrel 20 is made from stainless steel and shaped like a cylinder. As shown in FIG. 2, the container barrel 20 includes an inner surface 21 of a surrounding wall, a receiving space 22 defined by the inner surface 21, and a flange 23 protruding outwardly from an outer surface of the surrounding wall at a place adjacent to a top opening of the container barrel 20. A filtering unit mounting portion 24 extends horizontally from the inner surface 21 towards a center of the container barrel 20 and divides the receiving space 22 into an upper compartment 221 for storage of non-filtered liquid and a lower compartment 223 for storage of filtered liquid. In addition, the container barrel 20 is provided with a liquid inlet 25 communicated with the upper compartment 221, and a liquid outlet 26 communicated with the lower compartment 223. Three legs 27 are equiangularly and spacedly mounted to the bottom surface of the container barrel 20 for enabling the liquid container 10 to stand on the ground G stably.

The cap 30 is made from a stainless steel material and provided with a horizontally extending end edge 31. The cap 30 is capped on the top side of the container barrel 20 to prevent dust from entering into the container barrel 20. As shown in FIG. 2, a retainer 90 is provided to surround and tightly hold the end edge 31 of the cap 30 and the flange 23 of the container barrel 20 together, such that the container barrel 20 can be sealed.

The pressure reducing device 40, which is realized as a vortex generator 40 in this preferred embodiment, has an outer frame 41 and a plurality of blade 43 inclinedly extending from a center of the pressure reducing device to the outer frame 41. The frame 41 of the vortex generator 40 is mounted to the container barrel 20 in such a way that the blades 43 partially block the liquid inlet 25 to guide the stream of the non-filtered liquid entering the container barrel 20 from the liquid inlet 25 so as to depressurize the pressure of the aforesaid liquid. It will be appreciated that the pressure reducing device 40 is not limited to the aforesaid vortex generator. Any device that can achieve the purpose of reducing the pressure of the entering liquid may be used as the pressure reducing device 40.

The filtering unit 50 is embodied in this preferred embodiment as, but not limited to, a detachable filtering unit. In other words, the filtering unit 50 can be a fixed unit. As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the filtering unit 50 is composed of a top lid 51, a bottom lid 52, seven filter cores 53, a seal ring 54, a handle 55 and an upright post 56. The top lid 51 is shaped like a round disc and provided with one center protrusion 511 and six ambient protrusions 513 equiangularly disposed on an imaginary circle surrounding the center protrusion 511. The center protrusion 511 is provided with a through hole 515. In addition, the bottom lid 52 is shaped like a round disc and provided with one center protrusion 521 and six ambient protrusions 523 equiangularly disposed on an imaginary circle surrounding the center protrusion 521. Each of the center protrusion 521 and the ambient protrusions 523 is provided with a through hole 525. The filter core 53 is formed of a cotton material having a filtering effect and shaped like a hollow cylinder. The seal ring 54 is a round cushion pad having a sealing effect. The handle 55 has a grip portion 551, a round bottom portion 553 and a threaded through hole 555 penetrating through the grip portion 551 and the bottom portion 553. The grip portion 551 of the handle 55 is provided with two through holes 557 for insertions of user's fingers to facilitate the user to grip and take the filtering unit 50. The upright post 56 is a hollow post having a shank 561 and a bottom 563. The shank 561 of the upright post 56 has a threaded top portion and a plurality of through holes 565 for the passing of filtered liquid.

The mounting rod 60 has a driven tab 61 and a rod-like shank 63 connected with the driven tab 61 and provided at a bottom portion thereof with a thread.

The support member 70 is formed of a hollow tube having a shank 71 and a flared head 73 that flares from the top of the shank 71. The flared head 73 has a plurality of through holes 731 for the passing of filtered liquid.

The wastewater discharging member 80 includes a head 81, a body 83, a tail 85, a liquid discharging valve 87, and a through hole 801 penetrating through the head 81, the body 83 and the tail 85, and having a threaded section corresponding in location to the head 81 and an upper portion of the body 83. The lower portion of the body 83 has three liquid discharging holes 831 communicated with the through hole 801. The valve 87 is connected to the tail 85 to open or close the through hole 801.

In assembly of the filtering unit 50, as shown in FIGS. 1-3, the filter cores 53 are installed between the top lid 51 and the bottom lid 52 in such a way that the protrusions 511 and 513 of the top lid 51 and the protrusions 521 and 523 of the bottom lid 52 are inserted respectively into two ends of the filter cores 53 and the upright post 56 extends through the through hole 525 of the center protrusion 521 of the bottom lid 52, passes through the center one of the filter cores 53 and the through hole 515 of the center protrusion 511 of the top lid 51, and is threaded with the threaded through hole 555 of the handle 55. By means of the aforesaid screwing connection, the top lid 51 and the bottom lid 52 can be forced to move toward each other so as to firmly clamp the filter cores 53 therebetween. In addition, the seal ring 54 is sleeved on a periphery of the bottom lid 52. Further, in order to firmly connect the handle 55 with the top lid 51, filter cores 53, bottom lid 52 and upright post 56 in sequence, an O-ring 92 can be provided between the handle 55 and the top lid 51. It will be appreciated that the upright post 56 can be, in practice, welded with the bottom lid 52 directly.

In assembly of the liquid container 10, as shown in FIG. 1, the wastewater discharging member 80 is mounted to a bottommost location of the bottom portion of the container barrel 20 in such a way that the head 81 and the body 83 of the wastewater discharging member 80 are located in the lower compartment 223 of the receiving space 22 and the tail 85 of the wastewater discharging member 80 is exposed outside the container barrel 20 such that the liquid discharging holes 831 are located inside the container barrel 20 and the liquid discharging valve 87 is located outside the container barrel 20. Further, the shank 71 of the support member 70 is sleeved onto the head 81 of the wastewater discharging member 80, the filtering unit 50 is placed on the filtering unit mounting portion 24 of the container barrel 20 with the seal ring 54 abutting against the filtering unit mounting portion 24, the flared head 73 of the support member 70 supports the bottom lid 52 of the filtering unit 50, and the shank 63 of the mounting rod 60 is inserted through the filtering unit 50 and the support member 70 and threaded with the wastewater discharging member 80 with the driven tab 61 abutting against the handle 55. In this way, the filtering unit 50 can be firmly mounted inside the container barrel 20 and the pressure reducing device (the vortex generator) 40 is aimed at the filtering unit 50. Similarly, in order to firmly mount the detachable filtering unit 50 to the container barrel 20, an O-ring 92 can be provided between the driven tab 61 of the mounting rod 60 and the handle 55.

When the liquid container 10 of the present invention is in operation, the non-filtered liquid streaming through the liquid inlet 25 will first encounter the vortex generator 40 and then enter the upper compartment 221 of the receiving space 22 of the container barrel 20 with a reduced pressure. When the container barrel 20 is washed with cleaning water, the wastewater accumulated at the bottom portion of the container barrel 20 can be discharged out of the container barrel 20 through the liquid discharging holes 831 of the wastewater discharging member 80. Because the wastewater discharging member 80 is located at the bottommost location of the container barrel 20, the wastewater can be completely discharged out of the container barrel 20.

In conclusion, since a pressure reducing device is installed at the liquid inlet of the container barrel of the liquid container of the present invention, the pressure of the liquid entering the container barrel can be effectively depressurized so as to lower the noise due to impact of the liquid on the container barrel. Further, when filter cores are installed inside the container barrel, the pressure reducing device can prevent a filter core that is located adjacent to the liquid inlet from damage due to a high pressure perpetually exerting on the filter core, or prevent the impurities attached on the filter core from washing out from the filter core due to a high pressure exerting on the aforesaid filter core, such that the lifespan of the filter core can be extended and the quality of the filtered liquid can be enhanced. In addition, since the wastewater discharging member is installed at the bottommost location of the container barrel, the wastewater generated after water washing over the container barrel can be completely discharged out of the container barrel.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims. 

1. A liquid container, comprising: a container barrel having a liquid inlet, and a pressure reducing device mounted to the container barrel and corresponding to the liquid inlet.
 2. The liquid container of claim 1, further comprising a filter core disposed inside the container barrel and corresponding to the liquid inlet.
 3. The liquid container of claim 2, wherein the container barrel comprises a mounting portion on which the filter core is mounted.
 4. The liquid container of claim 3, wherein the mounting portion of the container barrel extends horizontally from an inner surface of the container barrel towards a center of the container barrel.
 5. The liquid container of claim 1, wherein the pressure reducing device is a vortex generator.
 6. The liquid container of claim 1, wherein the vortex generator comprises an outer frame and a plurality of blades extending inclinedly from a center of the vortex generator towards the outer frame.
 7. The liquid container of claim 1, further comprising a wastewater discharging member disposed at a bottom portion of the container barrel.
 8. The liquid container of claim 7, wherein the wastewater discharging member is disposed at a bottommost location of the container barrel.
 9. The liquid container of claim 7, wherein the wastewater discharging member comprises a liquid discharging hole located inside the container barrel and a liquid discharging valve located outside the container barrel. 